University of Iowa and Abortions: Tyranny of the Bureaucracy

Lois Lerner has been in the news again. She was called before Congress for a second time to answer questions about the IRS targeting of conservative groups. Again, she refused to answer questions, pleading the Fifth Amendment. I doubt that we will ever get the truth about who ordered this harassment of Obama’s political opponents. We will never know if it was directed from the White House.

Even if Obama was not personally involved, it is clear that his minions in the bureaucracy are working to protect his interests. Federal bureaucracies are controlled by big government statists who share Obama’s ideology. These bureaucrats are true fascists who consider themselves to be above the law. These Machiavellians justify their lawlessness by believing that their goals are morally superior. They can be found in all federal bureaucracies. They advance their agenda of big government control through the EPA, the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, on and on ad infinitum. Their motivation is a lust for power.

The same phenomenon occurs at state level bureaucracies. Recently, a local news story from Iowa City infuriated me. Like the federal government, Iowa has a divided legislature with the Democrats in control of the Senate. So, like the federal government, it’s nigh near impossible to pass anything limiting the power of the state.

Iowa has a Republican governor, Terry Branstad, who is older than dirt and represents the establishment wing of the party. Like many establishment Republicans, he rarely keeps his campaign promises to conservatives. He promised to end state funding of Planned Parenthood. He has not.

The Press Citizen story relates how the divided legislature “compromised” on the issue of state Medicaid re-imbursements for abortions by leaving the matter up to the approval of the Governor. Iowa only permits Medicaid re-imbursements for abortions in the case of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. The story relates that Branstad has not approved any Medicaid abortions this year. Now here’s the rub: most of the Medicaid abortions are performed at the state owned and funded University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The administration at the UIHC decided in their high and mighty wisdom to perform these abortions without charging Medicaid. In other words, they decided to provide “free” abortion services. Of course, we all know that nothing comes for free. The costs are being passed on to other consumers of health care at this state owned facility. The state pays the salaries of the doctors and nurses. The state pays the light bill.

So, the people of Iowa, through their elected representatives, have made it perfectly clear that they do not wish to pay for abortions except in very rare cases. And even after that, the people’s representatives elected to give the elected governor the discretion to spend or not spend money for these abortions. Now we have an unelected bureaucrat deciding for the people that their tax supported institution should provide this service without charge. In the end, the people are being forced to fund abortions! These bureaucrats believe that they are morally superior to us tax-paying peons and they could not care less what we think.

The CEO of the hospital is a Mr. Ken Kates. Iowans should let him know what they think of his actions over-ruling their wishes. The hospital is run by the University of Iowa. The President of the University is Sally Mason. The State Board of Regents has ruling authority over the University.

About the author, Rick David: Rick David retired from a career in business in 2011. His experience includes service in the USAF, in medical sales and in operations for an educational testing company. He has a passion for and has been actively engaged in conservative issue advocacy and campaigning for over 30 years. He currently resides in North Liberty, Iowa where he also served as a church pastor with his wife of 43 years and travels extensively volunteering in lay ministry. View all articles by Rick David

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